While water and moisture are essential for life, it is sometimes a nuisance or hinderance and must be controlled. For example, it is important for moisture, especially from high humidity and/or sweat, to be controlled as it tends to collect on the surface of a game piece for a sport and/or on the human body as the game is being played. Such a dilemma is especially troublesome when competing in sports activities that involve throwing and/or catching a projectile. Moisture collecting on the projectile and the hands, can cause a significant deterioration in performance. The problem is particularly acute with regard to successfully handling a projectile, such as a game disc when playing Disc Golf and similar games. The same holds true for games where a ball is used, such as baseball, basketball and football and when a bat, racquet, paddle or the like is required.
The problem in these sport activities stems mainly from impairing or destroying the natural grip of the athlete, as the disc or ball is thrown or caught, or as the bat, paddle or racquet is grasped. Indeed, champion athletes in any sport of this kind agree that grip is essential for accurate and consistent play.
In the past, many suggestions have been offered for products to serve as a powder desiccant to periodically apply to the hands of the athlete. The key shortcoming of these prior art products is that they also tend to act in combination with moisture and excess body oils to make the disc or ball either slicker or more sticky. Indeed, the effect seems to be constantly changing during a game as the moisture content of the atmosphere and/or the degree of sweat of the athlete changes. One instant the disc or ball is too slick and the next instance it may be too sticky, and all variations in between. Essentially, the athlete is left with the natural grip being destroyed. In addition to the natural grip being important when a projectile is being thrown or caught, or when holding a bat, paddle or racquet, it is also important when handling or using any other sports related article or game piece, such as a cue stick when playing pool, bar bells when weight lifting, bow and arrow when shooting archery, a bowling ball during bowling, or an apparatus while performing a gymnastic routine.
Heretofore, the efforts of inventors have been directed to trying to improve the dispenser for the powder composition that serves as the desiccant or antiperspirant. The most common dispenser is a bag or pouch that holds the powder composition within permeable outer layers of cloth or the like. The dispensing takes place by handling the bag, thereby forcing the powder particles through the interstices of the bag. For example, rosin is dispensed in this manner when used by baseball pitchers and batters, and of course it is well known to use chalk powder in a bag for players in such games as pool. However, in either of these instances, the natural grip is impaired or destroyed, especially in the presence of moisture. That is, the game article to hand contact becomes slicker, most often with chalk powder and similar compositions, or more sticky or tacky, which condition is most often associated with rosin, dirt or the like.
As mentioned above, the approach that prior inventors have taken in an attempt to do something to improve the situation has involved redesigning the dispenser for the powder compositions that are to be applied to the skin. While there has been some effort to change the desiccant or antiperspirant composition, insofar as I am aware these developments have focused on simply making a slight change in the basic composition by adding or taking away an element, rather than changing the basic composition. For example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,690 to Savanuck dated Feb. 3, 1984, the rosin bag-type dispenser is simply modified and the powder composition is adjusted by changing the percentage of known additives. Similarly, the Drucker et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,184 dated Jan. 11, 1983, makes minor changes in a ball or roller type dispenser and makes minor changes in the powder composition that is used as an antiperspirant. Furthermore, while the ingredients of the compositions are generally safe to be applied to the human body, they include modified organic compositions and inorganic compounds that are not only expensive to make, but are not generally recognized as being environmentally friendly.
Because of the failure of such efforts, more recent inventors have taken the different approach of simply trying to use pieces of cloth placed on the body to absorb excess moisture or perspiration. For example, the Konucik U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,210, issued Jul. 17, 1990 provides a sweat band that can be changed quickly so as to better control perspiration on the body. A similar approach directed to perspiration control involves use of moisture-absorbent material for attachment directly to a garment being worn, as illustrated in the Smith et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,360, issued May 14, 1991.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that there is a need for a truly effective system for hand conditioning, primarily for removing excess moisture and restoring the natural grip of the person participating in a sports activity. There is a need also to make the conditioning environmentally friendly, non-allergenic and low cost. It should be a departure from past improvement approaches, that have proven to be generally unsatisfactory in terms of maintaining a natural grip. In other words, something other than slight changes in rosin or chalk compositions should be sought. Also, something that is more effective than simply absorbent pads to be attached to the body or to garments worn by the athlete must be an objective. At the same time, it would be desirable to be able to use the inventive approach to condition other articles or things against excess moisture where it is a problem, such as with respect to moisture on other parts of the human body, in packaging, in electrical equipment or the like.